Wenger needs more time

Arsene Wenger’s press conference after the Old Trafford rout summed up the club’s state of mind and affairs.

In an attempt not to make excuses, our manager fielded the obvious criticism of his tenure. Wenger confirmed the signing of Park Chu-Young Park and said that he was going after a defender and a midfielder. He ruled out the link with Mikel Arteta and he refused to admit that he had got it wrong. If Gooners were looking for solace, then there was none. Wenger has decided to give lessons in how to deal with humiliation and that is to realise that we had 8 players out and physically after the Udinese game, we were a spent force in the second half.

The eight players if you needed reminding are Jack Wilshere, Gervinho, Thomas Vermaelen, Alex Song, Kieran Gibbs, Abou Diaby, Bacary Sagna, and Emmanuel Frimpong. These were special circumstances according to Arsene, and he conceded that Arsenal were short in some areas, but apparently the score was not typical of the performance of the team. In response to the predicted loss of Fabregas and Nasri, he said if he finds players who will strengthen the squad he will do it. Apparently the scouting team consists of 20 people, let’s hope that they deliver.

Manchester United also had a young team, and two of it’s frontline centre-backs missing. The difference was depth and experience. Training with the likes of Ferdinand and Vijdic has given Phil Jones and Chris Smalling a quantum leap ahead of their rivals. On the Arsenal bench, five players had never played Premier League football for the club. Our youth need world class players to train alongside in order to give them the development they need, but where are they?

The problem is that the players we are after are on the second tier, and certainly not world class. Even signing the world class Kaka on a loan deal will not stop our defence shipping goals. Success begins at the back, and now on the showing of Djourou and Koscielny, we need Cahill and Samba. Cahill would provide the quality, and Samba the no nonsense defensive aggression needed. We will need an experienced playmaker to allow the new forwards to have good service, and of course a new left back. Time is running out, and at the end of this week, we will be able to analyse our prospects for the coming season. This result yesterday was the mother of all humiliations and if we do not respond positively in the transfer market then the club morale will disintegrate and protests will be the order of the day.

Arsene refuses to accept responsibility for this defeat, and in stating that he must be given more time before judging whether he has got it wrong is a flawed defence, which is astonishing given that Fabregas knew that he was leaving the club 2 months ago and Na$ri wanted to leave at the start of pre-season. Now even allowing for the cash flow scenarios, it was not necessary to wait until the Champions league qualifier to go after players. Arsene confirmed that Arsenal Football Club are behind other clubs in paying decent wages and confirmed that in an ideal world the young players would benefit from having experienced players alongside them.

The problems at the club are very simple to explain and the natural sequence of disastrous consequences are entirely predictable, and for many of us the surprise was not the defeat at Old Trafford but it’s manner. It leaves many Gooners today in a state of shock. Everyone outside the club seems to know how to fix the problem, but due to a mixture of a Machiavellian Board and a conviction Manager, we are waiting for reality to dawn.

This my friends is the beginning of a real crisis, and only by the end of Wednesday evening will we know if it can be averted.

Click HERE to see the original article. This article was first published on Arsenal Insider

Written by Rocky The King